France: Community Service & Language Immersion

Fly into Paris and meet your Global Works trip leader and head to a carefully-selected hostel in the city center. Settle into the hostel, picnic lunch, and a short orientation. Start exploring the city with a walk to the Notre Dame Cathedral and the heart of Paris, Ile de la Cité. Spend the next few days exploring this incredible city with visits to Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, the Eiffel Tour. We also get to stroll the artsy neighborhood of Montmartre, see the Sacré Coeur Basilica, explore the Catacombs, and so much more!

From Paris, we travel south by high-speed train to Provence, one of France’s most popular regions. We stay in Avignon, a beautiful walled city and home of the Palais des Papes. We spend our days exploring the city ramparts and learning about the history of the Pont d’Avignon. We have an exciting scavenger hunt in the marketplace to practice our French with local vendors. We also visit the nearby Pont du Gard, an impressive Roman aqueduct and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

We make our way to Carcassonne, a traditional French town near the Mediterranean, and settle into our hotel. It’s time to start our service projects! Past groups have restored local heritage sites, maintained trails on the Chemin de St. Jacques pilgrimage route, and helped excavate 11th-century châteaux! We spend an afternoon volunteering with a day camp for elementary school students (seasonal). We run games and activities to practice our French and teach some English along the way. We go to Collioure for a day on the Mediterranean coast, visiting the castle, wandering through the narrow streets, and buying souvenirs before we wrap up on time in Carcassonne with a community goodbye potluck.

We go on a bike ride along the Canal du Midi, stopping for a picnic lunch In the afternoon, visit an underground cave system to see stalactites and stalagmites. We have a final celebratory dinner in  Toulouse before flying home!